FIFA Ultimate Team continues to be one of the game’s most controversial aspects – hello, surprise mechanics – but also one of its most popular and profitable. FUT will, of course, return in FIFA 20, but EA has some new features in mind that take heavy cues from the battle pass system used in games like Fortnite and the publisher’s own Apex Legends.
Season objectives will give you goals to complete that’ll level up a seasonal ranking, getting you access to new rewards as you level up in the rankings. Seasons will last six to eight weeks, and FourFourTwo notes potential unlocks like new players and packs as you level up in daily, weekly, season, and dynamic objectives.
Each of those objectives will offer differing levels of challenge on each goal, and there’s a new Milestone tier – separate from the seasonal progression – that asks you to complete long-term tasks that might take weeks or months to finish. In every case, the goal for EA seems to be introducing more progression and hooks to keep playing.
The Apex Legends battle pass didn’t go over great the first time around, but players seem to be responding more positively for Season 2 – certainly enough that EA’s going forward with plans to implement the system in its biggest cash cow.
No word yet on whether the season objectives will add an extra purchase – or how much that might cost – but we’ll know by the time FIFA 20 releases on September 27.